President Obama and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will announce research grants Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama, in an effort to stimulate the economy and support critical research, will announce $5 billion dollars in grants when he visits the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, according to an administration official.

The money comes from Recovery Act funds and is aimed at supporting "12,000 critical research projects - and tens of thousands of jobs associated with them, ranging from teachers and lab technicians to database managers and scientists," the official wrote in an e-mail.

Obama, who will be joined by Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other top medical experts, will tour a lab before speaking at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

More than 450 NIH employees, scientists, local officials and members of Congress are expected to be on hand.

The White House says the research grants are part of the Recovery Act's overall investment of $100 billion in innovative research and advancing science and technology infrastructure.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Politics and rock collided in suburban Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night when Irish rockers U2 came to town for their U2 360º tour. In this city full of government and political operatives, there was no shortage of references to both during the two-hour performance.

Bono introduced what he called "the nation state of U2," designating each band member with a cabinet or government position. He called drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. "the author of our constitution" - a reference to the fact that it was Mullen's ad on a high school bulletin board that led to the formation of U2 in the late 1970s. He also bestowed on him the title of leader of the opposition. Bassist Adam Clayton shares the double duty of minister of culture and foreign minister.

Most would probably assume Bono as the head of state in this government, but he told the audience he was happy with being "majority leader" and "Madame Speaker" because of his interest and ability in making deals and building consensus. President The Edge gets that honor, who Bono dubbed, "the leader of my free world."

Chuck Heath will travel from Alaska to Nevada on October 2 to spend the weekend campaigning with Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian, one of the many Republicans hoping to unseat the Senate Majority Leader next November.

The retired science teacher is scheduled to make five stops across Nevada with Tarkanian, the son of legendary college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. He is considered to be one of the frontrunners for the GOP nomination along with Nevada GOP chairwoman Sue Lowden, if she decides to formally enter the race.

Heath certainly won't bring out the kind of crowds that showed up to see his daughter during the presidential race, but he'll likely draw some of the Republican faithful eager to catch of
glimpse of anything Palin-related.

In a recent speech to conservative activists, Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks said President Obama was 'an enemy of humanity.'

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A spokeswoman for a Republican congressman who called President Obama "an enemy of humanity" said Tuesday that he should have clarified that he was talking about the president's policies on abortion.

Bethany Haley, a spokeswoman for Arizona Rep. Trent Franks, told CNN on Tuesday the congressman was actually referring to "unborn humanity" - a specific reference to the president's policies on abortion.

Franks used the term in a speech to conservative activists Saturday in St. Louis, pointing to Obama's decision to aid international family planning clinics that perform abortions.

"A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity," Franks said.FULL POST